![]() ![]() This column introduces the historical context surrounding Ashton-Warner’s life and her teaching in New Zealand. ![]() Ashton-Warner was an unconventional pioneer whose legacy remains relevant and applicable to today’s early childhood classrooms. Yet her intuition and her positive results with children encouraged her to persevere in developing the Language Experience Approach (LEA), a strategy that continues to be successfully and widely used in literacy education. Her thinking and work went against the educational protocols of her time. She exemplified using children’s key vocabulary, tapping into children’s funds of knowledge, linking spoken words to print, and co-constructing text to build a repertoire of words. She wrote and taught about connecting children’s voices to their literacy learning. Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1908–1984) was among the educators who advocated for children, especially those marginalized socially and culturally, to learn to read in meaningful, responsive ways. Influenced by social, political, and historical factors over the decades, educators have thought about and debated how to effectively do so for each and every child. Educators have long been focused on promoting early literacy skills as well as children’s motivation, meaning making, and joy while reading and writing. Language is a foundation for learning and development, including learning to read and write. ![]()
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